Sport As Aesthetic      The aesthetic domain extends beyond the realm of art. Aspects of nature and human production can often evoke an aesthetic response during contemplation of their forms or sensory qualities. What you find to be beautiful is idiosyncratic, a unique response that only you can experience to a particular stimulus. The fashion precepts of the age and culture in which you reside will inevitably influence your taste in beauty, but your individual predilections will ultimately determine what you find to be beautiful. Typically, beauty, as in art, is associated with the stationary images of the portrait, the poem or the sculpture. However, given that sport is a dynamic endeavor in which we can all see beauty, such static standards of excellence must be expanded to incorporate the beauty of movement and the unfolding drama of the athletic contest.
    To elaborate upon this notion further, a primary focus of aesthetic appreciation has always been the human body. Standards of beauty have changed through the ages (for example, the pendulum of social approval of the female torso has swung between the fecund belly featured in Renaissance art and the pinched abdomen, made popular by such models as Twiggy in the 1960s). Furthermore, the epitome of attractiveness in one culture may not approximate the standards in a distant land. Yet, artists, poets and the person on the street all find beauty in the human form. They may be attracted by the animal magnetism, the apparent virility, the marvelous intricacy of the human anatomy or any number of other factors. Yet, it is the dimension of the body in a state of motion that sport so uniquely provides for aesthetic approval. Sport is a venue for the body to be on display at it's finest. Perhaps you are amazed at the dexterity and adroitness of the sublime execution of a complex skill, or perhaps it is the agonistic struggle in the heat of the contest, or the triumph of the individual over adversity that triggers your aesthetic response.
    Another vital component is context. The setting in which sport takes place will influence your aesthetic response. The beauty of nature or the atmosphere in the stadium are examples of context that affect determination of beauty. Running along the shoreline at sunset . . . skiing a powder bowl among the peaks on a brilliant spring day . . . enjoying a championship playoff game from a front row seat . . . these are examples of activities enhanced by their environment. The relationship of individuals with nature, of athletes with their arenas of activity, has been a source of considerable artistic inspiration in itself. From the musings of such poets as William Wordsworth to the paintings of George Bellows and the sculptures of R.Tait McKenzie, the influence of the environment upon the performer is a recurring theme. For example, Wordsworth described the impact of nature on his development in the following way: " For nature then (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days, And their glad animal movements all gone by) To me was all in all. - I cannot paint What then I was. The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite: a feeling and a love. (Tintern Abbey.) Not only does this excerpt suggest Nature's nurturing power, it also focuses the attention of the reader upon the senses in aesthetic appreciation. He refers to the sights and sounds of the mountains, forests and waterfalls which color his experience of "the coarser pleasures" of boyhood days. Sensory input is a fundamental factor in the determination of beauty.